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Miller, Sir Edward (1848–1932)

Widespread regret will be occasioned by the announcement of the death which occurred yesterday at his home Glyn, Kooyong road, Toorak, of Sir Edward Miller.

Sir Edward Miller was born in Richmond in August 1848. He was the youngest and only survivor of the four sons of Sir Henry Miller, M.L.C., who came to Australia from Londonderry, Ireland, and who died in 1888, after having amassed a large fortune by financial investments. His brothers were Messrs William, Septimus and Albert Miller. Mr Henry Miller’s father was Captain Henry Miller of the 40th Regiment, a Peninsula and Waterloo veteran who became first military commandant in Queensland.

On his father’s death Sir Edward Miller assumed great financial responsibilities. He soon showed that he had inherited a large share of his father’s gift for financial management. He became a member of the directorate of the Bank of Victoria and for many years filled the position of chairman. His constancy to his duties was one of the notable facts in the annals of Victorian banking. His share in the family investments included many notable buildings in Melbourne to the management of which he brought the same unremitting care and interest. He made it a personal duty to see that his city estate was well cared for and was efficiently managed and kept modern.

Sir Edward Millet s interests broadened with the ever increasing scope of his investments. He was part-owner of Rocklands Estate, Camooweal, Queensland and through this and other pastoral investments he acquired a wide knowledge of pastoral values, for it was his habit to make a detailed study of everything that came under his financial direction. Sir Edward Miller’s thoroughness and zest for constant work made him greatly in demand for many services. He was chairman of the Victoria Insurance Company for many years and a director and chairman of the Gold-mining Association of Charters Towers, Queenland, which realised £550,000 worth of gold for a calling power of £4,500. He was interested in Broken Hill from its inception, and the first scrip of the Broken Hill Pty Co was issued to him. Sir Edward Millet was chairman of directors also of the Pioneer Tin-mining Co of Tasmania. As recently as 1928 Sir Edward Miller’s keen attention to detail in the conduct of company meetings was the subject of admiration among shareholders. In early life he and his brothers were pioneers of hunting in Victoria, and the Findon Harriers, a club which took its name from the Miller family estate at Kew, was largely supported by them. For 20 years Sir Edward Miller was master of the hounds. At one time he was president of the Melbourne Club.

Sir Edward Miller had been one of the earliest scholars of the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School which he entered a few days after its opening in 1858. When he was elected to the Legislative Council for the South Yarra Province in 1892 he brought a mind rich in business experience in sport and in social work to his legislative duties, and for the 20 years in which he remained in politics–for the greater part of the time as the representative of the East Yarra Province–he was recognised by his colleagues as a man of sound judgment.

As treasurer of the Red Cross Society for many years, Sir Edward Miller was brought into a very useful sphere of action. At the time of the Great War his financial ability was of immense value to the society when the drain on its funds reached a maximum. It was partly in recognition of this phase of his varied and valuable life work that he was knighted in 1917. For some time Sir Edward Miller was treasurer of the Talbot Colony for Epileptics and a member of the finance committee of the Children’s Hospital. Lady Miller, who before her marriage in 1877 was Miss Mary Elizabeth Darlot, received the O.B.E. in 1918 for her patriotic work. There are two sons–Mr Eustace Miller, who is now returning from England and Mr E. Studley Miller.

The funeral will leave Glyn, Kooyong road, Toorak, at a quarter past 11 o’clock to-morrow morning for the Fawkner Cemetery.